Poker News Roundup: Mikita Badziakouski, Anson Tsang, Bernard Lee

It was a week of wins as a number of players collected big paydays. Let’s take a look back at three big winners as we recap the latest poker news:

Badziakouski Wins Another Short Deck Event

Short deck poker is starting to pick up steam as it’s often the preferred game by high rollers in Asia. It is played mostly in the vein of traditional no-limit hold’em except the main difference is that deuces through fives are removed from the deck. That changes the hand rankings and creates more action. It seems like one man has figured out the game quite well as Mikita Badziakouski is gaining a reputation as the king of short deck poker.

In the short deck event at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, this past week, Badziakouski collected a nice little payday. The event was a 25,000-euro tournament, which led to a prize pool of just over 356,000 euros.

While there were a number of prominent players in the field, nobody could challenge Badziakouski. Even the owner of King’s Casino, Leon Tsoukernik, participated and failed to cash in at the table. The last showdown was between Badziakouski and Ivan Leow, but Badziakouski outlasted Leow in the head-to-head round and pocketed 213,750 euros. Leow collected a handsome sum of 142,500 euros.

Badziakouski has been on a roll in 2018. He won the Triton Jeju event in August for a prize of over $5.2 million and he got to the final table of another Jeju tournament for nearly $589,000 more. He also won another event for almost $2.5 million and finished at the final table a couple of other times.

Tsang Wins Pot-Limit Omaha Event at King’s Casino

Sticking with the same venue, Anson Tsang broke through at the King’s Casino in Rozvadov this past week, winning his first bracelet at the No. 7 Event, the 2,200-Euro Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Event. Tsang won just over 91,000 euros for his big win.

Ilya Bulychev was the runner-up and won just over 56,000 euros. Rounding out the top five finishers were Jason Gray, who was third and won just over 39,000 euros, Quan Zhou, who was fourth and earned 28,100, and Ludvig Sterner, who was fifth and took home 20,405.

Lee Wins Second Gold Ring At WSOP Circuit Event

Bernard Lee hosts a poker show where he talks to a number of successful poker players. It appears that whatever information he’s gleaned from those talks and interviews has helped him with his own game. This past week, he picked up a big win at the Lake Tahoe $400 NLH Single Day tournament for $11,456, which proves to be his second career WSOP ring.

Lee’s first claim to fame came back in 2005 when he finished 13th at the WSOP Main Event. He collected $400,000 back then. His week at Lake Tahoe was definitely nowhere near that profitable but he’s still very pleased with his performance. He outlasted a field of 124 players.

Lee won his first WSOP Circuit gold ring back in 2014 at the WSOPC Lodge Casino Event #9: $365 NLH Turbo for $14,500 in Black Hawk, Colorado.